A common stopping block for those installing solar panels is the cost of acquiring them. Fortunately, it is possible to get the benefits of solar power without paying anything. Solar panels are sometimes given away. This is particularly true if they are damaged or defective.

Look For Free Solar Panels On Craigslist And Free-Cycle:

You may see solar panels that someone is trying to get rid of through these websites. Unfortunately, the availability of solar panels through these sources varies. If you find solar panels on Craigslist or FreeCycle, it is possible that they could be damaged or defective. This could be true even if the person giving them away doesn’t mention them being damaged or defective. However, damaged solar panels can be repaired. Defective ones often will still produce electricity.

Your Local Highway Department:

Your local highway department might have damaged solar panels. If they do have damaged solar panels, it’s likely that they would give them to you for free. Assuming the solar panels are damaged and not merely defective, it is important to exercise caution when repairing them.

Get In Touch With Solar Panel Manufacturers:

While you will nearly always have to pay for new solar panels from major manufacturers, some of them offer defective solar panels for free. If you install enough of them, it is possible that you could get the same amount of electricity that you would get for solar panels that you bought.

Check With PV Installation Companies:

Companies that install solar panels might have defective or damaged solar panels on hand and available for free. Often times, solar panels that you can get for free from PV installers may be damaged in a manner that is easy to fix. Other times, they may simply be defective and not produce as much electricity. Again, if you get enough of them, it’s possible you could get the same amount of electricity that you would get from new solar panels.

Look On Social Media:

Many social media websites have pages where you are able to barter. This could allow you to get solar panels for free, in exchange for one of your used items. In addition, there are some communities on social media where users are looking to simply give away items. In some cases, you may be able to find solar panels that are used, damaged, or defective.

Check Multiple Sources:

If you look around enough, it is likely that you will find a variety of different sources of free solar panels. This will allow you to get a larger quantity of free solar panels, and it will increase the amount that you save on your electric bill.

Landscaping with moss can liven up any garden or landscaping. Many people use moss as an alternative to grass for it’s low maintenance and beauty. Live moss are small, soft plants that are typically about 1-10cm (.4-4 inches) tall and commonly grow close together in clumps in damp or shady locations (medium dense. However, the Dawson, happens to be the tallest moss in the world (about 50cm tall).

The Tennessee Tree Nursery sells many different types of moss. Here are some examples and some information on them:

Hypnum moss (sheet moss):
– typically found in all continents except Antarctica
– small to medium in size (2-10cm long)
– looks like a Cyprus tree
– grows on tree trunks, logs, walls and rocks
Sphagnum moss:
– commonly called peat moss
– wet habitats (grow more in wet areas)
– living and dead plants can hold large quantities of water
– under the right conditions, it can grow many meters
Topiary:
– the practice of training live perennial plants by clipping them into various shapes and angles.
– also known as living sculptures
– sometimes wired cages are used to help guide the shears used by the artist
– generally evergreens are used because they are small, woody plants that produce dense foliage and have fast growth habits
– Many of the tourist attractions like Disney World and Epcot Center have topiary plants on display to help attract people to their parks.
Partridge Berry (Mitchella Repens)
– Repens: creeping
– evergreen plant
* it’s a non climbing vine that is no taller than 6 cm with stems that are 15-30 cm long
– evergreens dark, shiny green leaves are easy to shape
– leaves easily spread

There are many other types of moss to choose from. You can check out the Tennessee Tree Nursery’s website or better yet, stop in and check out the different types of moss.

Landscaping with moss has been gaining popularity over the last few years due to economic problems and water scarcity. Many people are opting to encourage the growth of moss rather than getting rid of them by using harmful chemicals. Live moss has many perks.
* grows fast and prevents erosion (wearing away of rocks and other deposits on the earth’s surface by water, ice and wind)
* virtually no maintenance (no need to worry about when you need to mow your lawn!)
* grows thick and lush (once it’s been established)
* repels weeds
* doesn’t need fertilizer or much water, thus substantially saving money on water and the need for harmful chemicals.
* no pests or little to no diseases

To grow moss in shady areas there are four factors in order to to so effectively:
* must have enough moisture in the area (keep area moist at all times for the first few weeks after transplanting)
* enough shade (medium to to dense shading is prefered)
* humidity (difficult to control…misting kits will help-check out the website about the kits or visit the store and ask a sales associate)
* soil type/PH balance (prefer on growing on firmly packed acidic soils with PH balances between 5.0 and 5.5)

The Tennessee Tree Nursery has a wide selection of reasonably priced live moss for your gardening and landscaping needs. Shipping is affordable and they will deliver it to your house in 2-5 days. They can deliver it year round, so you can shop and order anytime. Visit the website or stop in to see the selection of moss and other beautiful plants for your gardening or landscaping needs! Landscaping with moss has never been easier or more beautiful! You will love the end results!

Harmful Pesticides Humans Are Digesting When Shopping For Vegetables and Fruits In Supermarkets

If you strive to stay in good health, then you have likely heard that non-organic vegetables and fruits are covered in unhealthy pesticides, but you may not know what the specific pesticides are and how they affect your body. Like many other health-conscious people who have not yet made the switch to eating organic produce, you may be under the impression that rinsing your produce well removes most, if not all of the pesticides on them and makes them just as healthy as organic fruits and vegetables. Read on to learn more about the common pesticides used today by farmers of non-organic crops, how they affect your body, and why rinsing produce doesn’t eliminate the health concerns.

Why Can’t You Just Rinse the Pesticides off Your Produce?

Before we get into produce pesticides used today and how they affect your body, let’s take a look at why rinsing produce often only removes very little, if any, pesticide residue.

First, realize that even if pesticide residue only remained on the surface of fruits and vegetables after they are picked at farms, many pesticides used today are not water-based. As you likely know, water and oil don’t mix, and rinsing fruits and vegetables covered in oil-based pesticides just doesn’t remove the residue.

However, pesticides are not just located on the surfaces of most non-organic fruits and vegetables, but they penetrate through the surfaces and deep down into the produce. That means that even if you wash your produce with a product that can break down oil, you are barely “making a dent” in the pesticides that remain in the produce and then enter your body when you consume them.

3 Popular Pesticides Used By Non-Organic Farmers & How They Affect Your Body

Before we get into the specific pesticides and their affects on your body, realize that this is far from an all-inclusive list of the pesticides used by non-organic farmers today.

In fact, scientific studies have shown that by the time a piece of fruit or a vegetable reaches the supermarket, it can contain over 30 separate pesticides!Here are three common pesticides used by farmers today and how they affect your body:

Glophysate

While Glophysate is technically an herbicide used to kill weeds that sprout in farms, it is not only sprayed on the weeds — to save time, farmers spray it on weeds and crops.

GMO crops can be sprayed with tremendous amounts of glophysate, because GMO crops are genetically engineered to withstand large amounts of this chemical, even when enough is sprayed that would kill non-GMO crops.

As you can imagine, such a potent weed killer can take a toll on your body when you consume it. However, before you even consume that produce and are simply touching it, it can cause skin irritation called photo-contact dermatitis.

Consumption of produce treated with glophysate is believed to cause many diseases. Most importantly, it can lead to many forms of deadly cancer. In a laboratory setting, human cells, including human placental cells, die shortly after they come into contact with just minute quantities of glophysate.

Due to just how deadly it is to human cells, consumption of this pesticide is believed to cause many chronic health problems, including autism, infertility, depression, Chrohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and much more.

Atrazine

The second most common pesticide used by farmer’s today is atrazine. This is also used to kill weeds, but is also sprayed directly onto fruits and vegetables while they are growing.

This pesticide was banned in Europe over a decade ago, but unfortunately, now only is it still legal in the US, but it is being used more and more by farmers.

Even the US EPA knows that this pesticide is an endocrine-disruptor, which means it disrupts the natural balance of healthy hormones in a human when consumed. When your body’s natural hormone balance is disrupted, it can lead to infertility and many types of cancer, especially breast and ovarian cancer.

In addition, this pesticide is also believed to cause cancer.

Chlorpyrifos

Chlorpyrifos is sprayed onto fruits and vegetables to kill insects. The US government knows that this is hazardous to the health of humans, so it outlawed the sale of it for use on home gardens in 2000. However, farmers are still allowed to spray it on their fruits and vegetables that humans consume!

Scientific studies have shown that consumption of chlorpyrifos can lead to autoimmune disorders, such as Lupus and Rheumatoid arthritis, and neurological problems, such as Parkinson’s disease, in people of all ages.

However, this pesticide is especially harmful to fetuses and children. When women eat it during pregnancy, it can cause their child to develop childhood developmental disorders, ADHD, and nervous system disorders.

If you care about your and your family’s health and currently consume non-organic fruits and vegetables and feed them to your family, then you need to know the dangers of consuming the pesticides they are often filled with. While these are the three most common pesticides used by farmers today, realize that there are many more, and most are harmful to your body.